


Never saw me there

by qwertysweetea



Series: 300 word thoughts [2]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Childhood Trauma, Class Differences, Gen, Jealousy, Pining, Sad, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot, Yearning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 18:34:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28711314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qwertysweetea/pseuds/qwertysweetea
Summary: The gentleman walks with the girl by his side; her hair is clean, combed, and pulled out of her face by delicate strands of ribbon. Éponine’s heart is in her throat.Éponine imagines what life she might have known if he had just looked a little closer and seen her stood there as well.
Relationships: Cosette Fauchelevent & Éponine Thénardier
Series: 300 word thoughts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2104704
Kudos: 3





	Never saw me there

**Author's Note:**

> I might make this a series; me getting carried away with the subtext in lyrics.

The gentleman walks with the girl by his side; her hair is clean, combed, and pulled out of her face by delicate strands of ribbon. Éponine’s heart is in her throat. It flutters before it dulls to an ache. Since she found her, it has become a ritual.

The girl is everything she wants to be, to possess, to embody. She is proof of everything she dares not admit. The youth of her face isn’t clad behind dirt, her cheeks are full and soft… she wants for nothing, Éponine assumes, at least nothing that she can’t grasp with both hands.

Her own hands sting as she flexes them. Hands for climbing and rummaging, and washing with frozen water. If she had hands like Cosette then maybe Marius would love her. If she had hands like Cosette, she wouldn’t need Marius’ love at all.

Her eyes jump to the gentleman; her mind fights the urge to call him a villain.

He isn’t a villain. He can’t be –

He has brought the flower that had been wilted and torn by her parents to full bloom. Under his care she had a delicate countenance and big curious eyes; she had fine clothes, round features from eating her fill; she has soft hands for needlework, reading, and holding fine china.

And Éponine cannot imagine a world where her soul may rest long enough to heal; she cannot imagine a person who would provide her with tenderness over stagnation; she cannot imagine blooming. But Cosette makes it look possible. The villain who is not a villain, who’s hands look too rough to nurture ones so soft, had proven it is.

If he had just looked a little closer, she thinks. If only he had looked a little closer and seen her stood there as well.


End file.
